Preservation Instincts
by knacc
Summary: Maya and Krieg are out on a normal mission when complications and a blast from the past makes completing it more difficult than expected. Sequel to Successful Communication.


Krieg stands near the back of group as they receive their next mission and as usual, he's not really paying attention. His musings on how best to describe the grey of Maya's eyes are cut short when seemingly out of nowhere, she starts talking about him. "Actually, I'd prefer to bring Krieg along if you don't have any objections."

His head whips up and he finds her standing, hands on hips, and meeting Roland's uncertain gaze with a look of pure confidence.

Roland shifts on the spot and squints his eyes for a moment before saying, "It is your mission, soldier, so I'll trust you to choose the best man for the job."

Krieg thinks that if she's picking him, than she clearly has not picked wisely but as always, he keeps that to himself.

"Thank you," Maya smiles and even though it isn't for him, Krieg can feel a warmth in his chest all the same. "Then it is settled. Unless," she turns to look at him, "you'd prefer to stay here?" Her slate, no, storm cloud grey eyes meet his and she quirks an eyebrow.

"Really, Maya, you're giving the big guy way too much credit," Axton says, flopping down on one of the nearby couches.

Maya ignores him, continuing to look at Krieg as if she expects an actual answer.

_Tell her we'd follow her anywhere, that her trusting us to fight by her side is an honor. Or at least agree to go so we don't make her look stupid, _Krieg thinks as the silence grows more and more awkward. _Come on, idiot, just say something!_

"TIME TO BATHE IN SWEET MEAT JUICES!" Krieg finally shouts, shaking his fists at the sky.

"That definitely sounds like a yes to me," Gaige says, sticking her tongue out at Axton. "You guys make sure to call us if things go sideways, okay?"

"Will do," Maya says before turning to leave. After a moment, Krieg stomps after her.

Once they are out of earshot, she says, "Sorry about Axton. He's only so rude because he doesn't trust you yet. To be fair, you're not the easiest person to trust but I'm sure he'll come around. Anyway, I figured if anyone should be heading out on a mission instead of killing time in Sanctuary, it was you. You always seem uncomfortable here." They reach the fast travel station and she glances over at him before tapings in the coordinates to wherever their next mission is and sending them on their way.

Immediately upon arriving, a sinking feeling of familiarity settles in his guts. He pushes it aside, deciding it is probably just because he'd been here back when he was more feral. Suddenly, a sharp crack rings out, distracting him from thinking it over further. Maya whips out her gun and starts looking for the source while Krieg pulls out his axe and shouts, "PUT YOUR MEAT WHERE YOUR BULLETS ARE, COWARD!"

"Sorry about that, amigos!" comes Mordecai's voice out of Maya's echo communicator.

She relaxes her stance but doesn't return her gun to it's holster. "What was that?" she calls back.

Mordecai chuckles awkwardly before finally saying, "Let's just say I'm a lot more used to shooting people in masks like that than asking them for help. Anyway, you two should meet up with me so I can give you the final details on grabbing that upgrade. I'm in the cave at the top of the bluff, you can't miss it."

Maya rolls her eyes, possibly offended on Krieg's behalf but he can't blame Mordecai for still thinking of him as a threat since he basically is one. All it would take is one time where his dominant side refuses to be reined back in and he'd be back to the vicious roaming days of before he'd met her. "What do you mean final details?" Maya sighs. "Roland told us this was just a simple pick-up mission."

"Well, things have changed. I'll tell you more when you get here."

Maya frowns before saying, "Let's go," and heading off in the direction of the bluff looming nearby.

In spite of her head start, Krieg quickly pulls ahead and starts slashing at the stalkers that bar their path. They hop away and disappear more often than his blade ever connects but he can feel some of the tension from being shot at dissipate as he screams and thrashes about. Maya picks up a particularly stubborn one and Krieg smiles manically as his axe sink into its flesh. Its blood splashes on his chest and mask and while he recoils at the contact inwardly, he can tell that the rest of him is very pleased with itself.

_Fine, chop up as much of the hazardous wildlife as you want. Let's just stay on our best behavior for Maya, alright?_

"I'LL EAT YOUR SCREAMS AS YOU DROWN IN YOUR OWN BLOOD!" Krieg shouts at the stalker's corpse.

_Yeah yeah, maybe less of the whole screaming thing if you can manage it,_ Krieg thinks, glancing over at Maya as she kills the final stalker with her Maliwan SMG. Her eyes sweep the surrounding area and finding no new targets, fall on Krieg. He's still dripping stalker blood and his shoulders are heaving a bit but she just nods and continues towards where Mordecai waits for them. Krieg pulls out his shotgun and follows after her, wondering, as he often did, what he could have done to deserve her being a part of his life.

Moments laters, they reach Mordecai's sniper nest. He has his attention focused on a nearby Hyperion base, peering through his rifle at the goings-on below so he is slow to greet them. When he finally does turn to face them, he mumbles, "Never gonna get used to that," eyeing Krieg up and down.

_We should put our gun away, no need to put him more on edge_, Krieg thinks but only finds the gun hesitantly lowered to his side. _Pretty close, I'll take it. Now let's stay quiet and let them talk, alright? _Almost in protest Krieg shouts, "SHOUTING," but nothing more.

"Just try to avoid shooting him and we'll be good," Maya says, crossing her arms. "So, what's happened?"

"I got the upgrade you guys need, just like Roland said but I ran into a bit of a problem." Mordecai turns away and starts pacing, his slight limp bringing attention to his braced ankle. "See, Blood and I were checking out a lead that turned out to be a trap. She bought me some time so I could get away but those Hyperion bastards grabbed her and brought her here. I kept the upgrade on her collar so if you help me get my girl out, you'll have what you need."

Krieg glances down at his feet. He doesn't really know Mordecai all that well but he does know he seems close to his constant companion. He must be worried sick.

"Under normal circumstances, I'd be coming with you but," Mordecai gestures at his wrapped leg with disgust, "I busted my leg bad escaping so there's no way I could keep up."

"Are you sure you should even be standing on that?" Maya says.

Mordecai rolls his eyes. "It takes more than something like this to put me in bed, believe me."

"Alright," she sighs. "Do you want me to call in the rest of the group? I'm sure none of them would mind if they heard the circumstances."

"Nah, the sooner we get Blood out of there, the better. Just the two of you will be fine."

"Understood," Maya nods. "You know, all you had to say to get my help was that Bloodwing had been captured. No need to make this all about the upgrade."

Mordecai turns and smiles. "Thanks, amigo. That means a lot."

"Just what any decent person would do."

Mordecai barks out a laugh at that. "Yeah but you're on Pandora. Not really too many decent folks to be found around here."

Maya tightens her jaw a bit but nods.

"Anyway, I think they are holding her here in this storage building." He points at a rectangular building deep in his chalk map of the base. "I'll provide some support from here but I'm really counting on you two. Get my girl back."

"Will do." Maya says, turning to leave. Krieg stares at Mordecai awkwardly for a moment before bringing his gun back up and following after her.

The giant metal gates quickly come into view and once again Krieg feels an uncomfortable familiarity. _It's just because its a Hyperion base_, he tells himself. _All these places look identical._

"If you guys are gonna get in there, we'll need to make them open those gates. I'll try and wound some of the bots while you make a break for the entrance, alright?" Mordecai says over the ECHO.

Three cracks later and the doors are swinging open to release reinforcements. Maya and Krieg rush at the opening, spraying bullets at anything that gets too close. A BUL Loader plows into Krieg and he can feel his tenuous calm begin to fray. He gets back up, shouting, "NEVER TOUCH ME!" but keeps following Maya into the base. They clear the doors just as they begin to close.

"Nicely done," Mordecai says.

Maya is panting but she smiles as looks over at Krieg, then at the remaining Loaders still in the base with them. "Might be a bit early for congratulations," she smirks.

The bots all move forward as one, a legion of giant wind-up tin soldiers marching steadily to their doom. An EXP Loader breaks away from the pack, charging right at Maya and even though Krieg knows better, knows she can take care of herself, he finds himself running straight for it. "BOOM TIME!" he shouts as he pulls out his axe and leaps towards it. _This is going to hurt_, he thinks just as Maya picks it up, freezing its detonation. His axe shatters the blue power core on top, causing it to explode harmlessly in her phase orb.

"You focus on anything else, I can handle these Exploaders," she shouts, picking up another and poping it with her gun.

In spite of the rising rush of blood in his veins, Krieg heeds her advice, heading for the nearest GUN Loader and emptying his shotgun into its chest. Another meets a similar fate as what remains of his sanity keeps a wary eye on Maya. _I'd never forgive myself if she needed backup and I let her down_, he thinks as another bot falls from a few blasts of his shotgun.

He's just turning to fire on a Hyperion Engineer when his legs get taken out from under him by a BUL Loader. His teeth clench as the rage that had been building inside him cracks the surface. He pulls out his axe and throws it into the nearby engineer's skull in one fluid motion. He then yanks it out, warm blood gushing from the wound while he hears himself scream, "TASTE YOUR BRAIN JAM." He loses himself to the sounds of metal tearing through metal and his own homicidal gibberings, to the feeling of his axe slicing and shattering, of sparks and blood.

The rage finally subsides and his first thought is to check on Maya. She's standing not five feet away, tossing a grenade into one last pack of Loaders. An acid cloud envelopes them and she picks them off to a chorus of "Nonono"s. Her stormcloud grey eyes sweep the docks and finding nothing left to shoot, land on Krieg.

She's looking over his chest with a steady, curious gaze and if he still possessed the power to blush, he's pretty sure he would be doing just that right now. "I think," she says, tilting her head and stepping closer to him, "that some of that blood is yours. Here," she picks a health vial off the corpse of a nearby engineer and holds it out to him, "this should help."

_Take the vial and tell her thank you. Tell her that the kindness she extends to us makes us feel just a little more human. Tell her_, his eye meets hers and his stomach flips in an not entirely unpleasant way, _nevermind, don't tell her that. Just accept her help, alright?_

After a brief pause, Krieg grabs the needle from her and jabs it into his arm. Stimulates flood his bloodstream and he can feel some of his wounds begin to scab over. "Stormy Lady fails to end us again," Krieg growls while inwardly cursing what makes it past his lips. _You didn't say thank you but you used my description for her eyes?_

Maya smiles. "That's sort of the point. Now come on, we should get moving again."

They blow through the now deserted dock, climbing two sets of concrete steps until they are face to face with a damaged fence ringing a pit filled with skags. "Welcome to the Hyperion Wildlife Exploitation Preserve," Mordecai says but with this final sight, Krieg already knows exactly where they are.

He freezes on the spot, memories of a frantic escape made amidst the chaos of explosions and freed beasts rushing back to him. And then, more faintly, he starts to recall the mind searing pain and small, cold spaces of slag testing. He feels a memory begin to come into focus but his own cries of "NO STOP" snap his attention back to the present.

He's turning to run away, panic flooding his mind when he hears Maya's voice through the haze, "Krieg? Are you coming?" He stops, a new horrible realization sinking in. Maya already jumped down into the skag pen. She's in the preserve and if he runs away, he'd be leaving her to Hyperion. _You have to go back, _he shouts at himself internally. _You can't leave her alone here. _Krieg feels a leg scoot forward, edging him just slightly closer to the exit. _NO, you can't, _he begs himself. _If you run away, they'll capture her and experiment on her and it will be all your fault. Don't you dare leave her._

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH," he screams but doesn't make any more moves to leave. Instead, he just stands there, breathing in raspy, long pulls for what feels like forever.

"Krieg?" Maya's voice calls again, concern obvious in her tone this time.

This finally seems to resolve Krieg's struggle. He turns back towards the skag pit and after a final moments hesitation, jumps in. He has his axe out, his eye looking around for possible threats before he even hits the ground. _Thank you_, Krieg thinks.

Maya finishes shooting the stragglers then turns to him. "Are you alright? Did something attack you after I jumped down?"

She steps towards him and he skitters, his head whipping back and forth. He can feel his teeth grind together with how tight he is clenching his jaw. For once, he doesn't have anything he wishes he could say to her. It's better if she doesn't know.

Maya watches him twitch for a moment, her brow knitted before shrugging it off. "Anyway, let's keep going. Don't want to keep Bloodwing waiting." She heads off deeper into the preserve and close behind, Krieg reluctantly follows after.

They cut through an empty shell of a building and step into an expansive enclosed area on the other side. Krieg vibrates with nerves, taking in how tall the walls still are. A rakk crashes into his face, claws extended and he slams it into the ground in an instant. He catches the next one mid-flight with his axe like its a baseball, the combination of adrenaline and overclocked nerves already bringing him close to the edge. _Come on_, he thinks, _we just need to hold it together enough to not run away. That's all I'm asking_.

"Nice!" Maya shouts before freezing a rakk as it swoops down towards them.

Krieg can barely hear her over the sound his heart thundering away, an ocean beating at a retaining wall. A stalker appears out of nowhere, slashing across his chest, and he snaps. As usual, his grip on the world loosens as everything becomes a blur of blood and death. But unlike normal, he feels no manic smile on his face or twisted joy at the pain he's causing, only vitriolic fear that if he doesn't kill it all fast enough, he's dead.

After awhile, he comes down enough to recognize where he is and that Maya is near by and still safe. _Good job_, he thinks. She pops a final stalker mid-leap and its corpse hits the ground with a thud which causes him to jump.

Maya seems to register the motion since she lowers her gun and looks at him with concern. "You aren't okay, are you?"

Krieg only continues to grind his teeth and shudder. Maya puts her gun away and takes one step towards him. He moves back.

She sighs. "I'm just... worried. I wish you could tell me what's going on."

Krieg feels a warmth in his chest inspite of all the panic. He's acting in a way that would send most people running away in fear and she's just worried about him. _Maya_, he thinks, wishing, as he always did, that he was normal.

"Do you want to leave? I can carry on without you if that would hel-"

"SAFE AND NOISE," Krieg growls and closes the gap between them slightly, smacking his axe into his palm.

"I'll take that as a no." She brings her hand to her brow and squeezes her eyes shut. "Alright, we're just going to have to keep going then. But if you're not doing better by the time this mission is over, we're not going back to Sanctuary. We'll have to figure something else out."

_We?_ Krieg thinks, _Like my problems are hers as well?_ He stares at her, eye wide and the niggling of warmth in his chest grows.

Maya stares back at him for a moment, smiles and starts to reach towards his shoulder before changing her mind and pulling out her gun instead. She casts Krieg one last lingering look then heads up the hill towards the only intact building they've found so far. And even though every step is just bringing them deeper into the bowels of hell, and he's still shaking like a leaf, his steps don't feel quite so heavy anymore.

The double doors open with a groan. _Like the protests of the damned_, Krieg thinks. He stays close to Maya, his one eye skimming their surroundings. The building is strangely empty and silent apart from the sound of his buzzaxe scraping a morbid tatoo on the concrete floor. Suddenly, one of the crackly ceiling speakers springs to life and a familiar voice echoes through the hall. "This is Handsome Jack, thanking you, loyal test subject, for helping bring Pandora into the future. The experiments you'll be put through will help us uncover new uses for Eridium, new cures for medicine and… why are you having me read this crap? This is hilarious. They know we're gonna mutate the hell out of them, why lie to-" The recording cuts off mid-sentence and goes to static.

A crisp memory of the first time he'd heard that flashes through Krieg's mind. Of being bound and scared but still clinging to the hope that he'd escape by the skin of his teeth like he'd always done before. _Idiot. _ Krieg feels a growl that had been growing in back of his throat tear itself from his lips and morph into a curse, "RRRRIP YOU INTO FLESHFETTI!" He backs away from Maya, the muscles in his arms tight as he threatens the nearest speaker with his buzzaxe. _Calm down. He's not real and we aren't trapped,_ he tries to tell himself but even he's angry and scared after that blast from the past.

Maya watches him, eyes wide and mouth open. "Fuck," she whispers before saying at a normal volume in to her ECHO, "Mordecai, do they run slag testing on humans here?"

"Not recently, but they used to before an accident that let a few of their test subjects escape. Well, the ones who could still walk," Mordecai lets out a dark chuckle, "It was some grim business. Why?"

She swallows and says, "No reason," before turning off her ECHO's input. Putting her gun away, she holds her open palms out to him. "You've been here before, haven't you?" She takes a slow step towards him and this time, he doesn't skitter away. "The thing I don't get is... why are you still here? This place has to be filled with horrible memories and still you refused to leave." She continues to close the distance between them, now a little bit faster. "It's almost like... you're protecting me."

Krieg's head snaps up to met her eyes at that. _Tell her that her safety is our priority. That we would march through hell and beyond for her,_ Krieg thinks but to no avail.

Maya just meets his gaze and nods. "Alright. Look, I don't know how comforting this will be to you but I promise you're never going to go back to Hyperion, okay? I'll never let them take you. I've got your back until the end." She places a tentative hand on one of Krieg's heaving shoulders and instead of it getting thrown off, he feels his heart rate slow down just a bit.

_That's right_, Krieg thinks, _She'll make sure we're safe. She'll watch over us and we'll watch over her. Calm down, big guy._

"We just need to get Bloodwing out of here and then we'll be done. It can't be too much further. We can wait for you to be ready though." She stays next to him, leaving her hand like an anchor on his shoulder as he shudders and breathes. A few minutes pass and Krieg feels steadier. And when they continue onward, into a dilapidated dome and a fight with stalkers, Krieg is sure he will make it through this as long as he has Maya by his side.

They exit the dome and come upon an open area with another larger, intact building on the other side. "Bloodwing should be in that next building," Mordecai says as they cross the vacant expanse. "You grab my girl and we'll work on getting you all out of there."

"Sounds good," Maya says, "Can't say I'll be sorry to leave." She hits the button next to the door. A sharp "bzzz" noise can be heard and the doors don't open. "Okay, now what?".

"Looks like they are sending in reinforcements. You're gonna need to hold them off while I think of something to get those doors open."

"Alright," Maya says but Krieg can see her huff out a sigh.

_Not like we have a choice in the matter,_ Krieg thinks as he readies his shotgun, Maya mirroring the action with her SMG. _Alright, just one more fight and we're out of here. Just hold it together a little longer_.

Bots hit the ground with a thud, tossing turf into the air with each impact. They begin to unfold rapidly before tottering their way towards where Maya and Krieg stand cornered. Maya grabs the first EXP Loader she sees, yanking the bots around it up in to the air and towards it. She shoots the bot in its exposed core and it explodes harmlessly before she dumps its mangled frame on the ground and picks up another one.

With the Loaders gathered up, Krieg dives into the fray, abandoning his readied gun for his axe. He slices clean through one robot and carries the blow into its nearest ally, ripping its gun arm off. Maya continues to empty her gun into the staggered crowd, little splats of green corrosive goo appearing as she hits her marks. In the distance, Krieg can hear more loaders landing but ignores it in favor of trying to keep his calm and keeping an eye on Maya.

"Looks like the bots found some more friends. Stalkers incoming," Mordercai says over the ECHO.

Krieg looks up from where he is prying his axe out of a loader chassis just in time to see a stalker spring up and dig its claws into his chest. He growls and pulls back his axe but Maya shoots it twice in the head before he can finish the motion. He follows through anyway, throwing his axe into a fast approaching BUL Loader and knocking it back. He pulls out his shotgun, blasting the loader until it stops moving before retrieving his axe from its wreckage. Just then, a badass stalker uncloaks amidst a crowd of freshly arrived robots. It tears into them, spinning and tossing them back.

"BRING ME YOUR FACE BADASS," Krieg shouts as he charges at the beast, feeling the rage inside him grow. He swings at the stalker's face but it ignores the blow and claws him across the chest. He growls and brings his axe back across its face, this time making it issue forth a loud wail before disappearing again. Krieg can see little sparks of electricity periodically light up stealthed stalkers as Maya tries to find the badass amidst the fray.

"Any ideas yet?" Maya shouts into her ECHO device over the roar.

"I'm working on it, I'm working on it, don't rush me," Mordecai echos back.

Krieg is tearing through bot after bot whenthe badass stalker reappears, clamping down on his shoulder with a sickening squish. Krieg feels pain and terror and rage overwhelm him. Dropping his axe, he grasps down hard with both hands on the stalker's head, digging its teeth deeper into his shoulder. "NO BITING!" he shouts as he feels the stalker's jaw break against him. He tears it off his shoulder and throws it to the ground. He can tell he's bleeding a lot but none of that seems to matter right now as he screams and thrashes and tears his way through stalkers and loaders alike. Somewhere amidst the haze, he registers that a Badass Loader has appeared. He's not sure how he and Maya take it down but he's sure it involves lots of screaming and bullets and thrown axes. And when he finally comes down and the world comes back into focus, he's surrounded by piles upon piles of metal and guts and he wobbles a little on the spot as the blood loss hits him..

"Door's open now," Mordecai says belatedly.

"I can see that," Maya says before turning to Krieg, a look of horror flashing across her face as she sees his chest and shoulder. "That's a lot of blood. Alright, you're going to want to sit down for this," Maya says as she guides Krieg until he's sitting with his back against a nearby cargo container. Krieg thinks numbly that this isn't necessary, that there's no way a simple stalker bite can kill the invincible monstrosity he calls his body but he stays sitting anyway. His right arm lays limp by his side, his own blood running down it in rivulets and staining the rags he has wrapped there. "I don't think I've ever fixed a wound this big before so this is probably going to sting a bit," she says as she presses her graceful hand over one of the deeper gashes on his shoulder. He watches as its pristine white and blue are lost to a sea of red and wonders for the thousandth time why she's so good to him. Slowly, the now purple tattoos of her hands and arm begin to glow, and a searing pain fills his arm. He growls and looks up at her to find she is already looking at him. Her eyes quickly flick away from his face and down to the wound she's fixing. _That's right, we probably look even more hideous than usual right now. Can't blame her for not wanting to look at us. But she was looking at us until we looked at her_, a hopeful part of his brain notes before discounting it immediately. _Don't read too much into it, moron._ _I'm sureshe's just worried about hurting us anymore than we already hurt ourselves_.

He keeps staring at her though, watching as her eyes dart across his chest and then back to where her hand is. After what seems like a long time, she finally takes away her hand and meets his eyes. "You're good as new," she says, "no big deal." She starts to stand up, saying, "Now let's go ge-" but instead getting to her feet, she wavers on the spot.

In an instant, Krieg is on his feet, wrapping his arms around her and keeping her from falling. Maya blinks a few times rapidly before saying, "I'm fine, I guess that just took more out of me then I'd realized." She then flexes her hands, looks at where she'd accidentally placed them on his pecs as she'd fallen and pulls them away like she'd been burned. "Sorry," she says, pulling herself from his loosening grip, "I just… thank you for catching me. I should be fine now." He sees her grimace as she walks away which he immediately attributes to having just been touching so much of him. It's not until he turns to follow her through the now open doors that he realizes that the spot where he'd been sitting moments earlier is now a bright crimson from his blood. His eyes widen and he glances at the retreating form of Maya, now just a tough and steady as ever. _I guess we needed that more than I realized. _He chases after her, praise for her kindness as always in the forefront of his mind but not making it to his lips.

They enter the building Bloodwing is being held in together, both of their guns at the ready, wondering what final trap Jack will have laided for them. They see cages filled with badass skags and stalkers but no sign of Mordecai's companion. They keep going until at the very back of the building, they find a sign hanging above one final chamber. The door opens with ease which seems off to Krieg but he ignores his fears and keeps following Maya. They reach the end of the room and both stop dead in their tracks.

"Did you find my girl? How's she look?" Mordecai asks, worry evident in his voice.

Maya turns to look at Krieg as she responds into her ECHO, "Sorry, Mordecai. She's not here. We won't give up though."

Jack's voice springs from their echos, interrupting their conversation. "You wondering where Bloodwing is, eh? I had them move her a few hours ago, to someplace a bit more… dramatic. You'll see what I mean when you get there."

Krieg had been standing perfectly still since they'd found the cage empty but as Jack stops talking, he starts to scream, his body flailing as he claws at his own mask. "NONONO, THE LITTLE MAN PROMISED ONE MORE DANCE WITH THE DEVIL AND WE'RE OUT OF THIS FLESH FACTORY BUT WE'RE NOT LIAR LIAR BRAIN ON FIRE," Krieg says, his words nearly running together. Krieg can feel all the terror Maya had helped to calm come flooding back, filling his veins and gut with a toxic sludge.

_I didn't mean to lie, _Krieg thinks, hoping the rest of him is listening. _Things just aren't working out in our favor, alright? I want to get out of here as much as you do buddy but we can't leave Maya no matter what and you know it._

"PRETTY LADY NEEDS HER KNIGHT BUT WHAT ABOUT MY MEAT?" Krieg shouts, fingernails digging into his scalp, muscles tight like a pack of rubber bands about to snap. "CAN'T STAY CAN'T GO!"

Krieg looks at Maya, his eye wide. He doesn't think the rest of him would ever hurt her, knows that as far as the Psycho is capable of caring for another person, he cares for her. But right now he's so scared and crazy and wild, so close to berserking with nothing but himself to take it out on, Kreig's worried she might get injured in the impending explosion. _Calm down, please,_ he begs himself, hoping that somehow he can pull himself back from the brink.

Maya looks worried too but it doesn't seem to be about her own safety because she puts her gun away again and starts to approach him. "It's alright," she says, her deep voice even, "I know I said we were almost done but we got screwed so we're not. I'm sorry. I know you don't want to leave me but I don't really want to put you through this anymore." She frowns, her thin eyebrows knitted together in contemplation. "Guess we're at a bit of an impasse on that. Fuck," she mumbles, "what are we going do?"

Krieg feels his fingers relax as he listens to her being worried about him, his breaths slowing down a little with each word.

"You could stay here," Maya says, continuing to close the space between them, "but then I couldn't protect you and you wouldn't be sticking with me so that one doesn't work. We can try and stay here until you calm down like last time, which is fine by the way, I just wish you could get out of here. Are you sure you won't leave without me? I promise-"

"TO THE PAIN," he shouts but a little quieter than he was speaking before and he doesn't lock his jaw up when he stops talking so Krieg counts it as a victory.

"That's what I figured. You do seem a bit calmer already though. Are you… calming down because I'm talking?" Maya surveys his face and shoulders, setting one outstretched hand on each of his hands and after a moment, taking them gently away from his head. "Yeah good, we can work with that. I'll just… keep talking and we'll take breaks if you need them. I know I said this last time but from the map of the preserve I saw, there really can't be too many places left for Bloodwing to be in. We'll get out of here in no time. And I won't leave you, no matter what."

And so Maya talks. She talks about her time at the abbey. She tells him stories about her training and her childhood and how she'd get in trouble for staying up all night to read. She tells him about her favorite books (adventures and histories) and about what she knows about sirens (sadly not very much). And even though he's still trapped in a hell with no foreseeable end, her voice calms him and strengthens him and lets him keep going.

And so they push on, deeper and deeper into the preserve. Past stalkers and skags and into the very building he was held in during his stay there; the place where the man became the monster. And it might take him a few minutes to gather the courage to breach it's entryway but he doesn't run away and he doesn't flip out so he deems it a success.

And the whole time, Maya just keeps talking, only ever faltering when one story has petered off and she is forced to find a new topic. Maya, who is naturally reserved and doesn't talk about her past, runs her mouth like Gaige after her morning coffee and she does it for Krieg. And Krieg is eternally grateful, knows he doesn't deserve someone as fundamentally good as she is being this kind to him but he can't really bring himself to wish her away either. So slowly and steadily, with the constant accompaniment of Maya's beautiful, even voice, they make their way through the rest of the preserve and to where Jack is holding Bloodwing.

When they find her, she mutated to hell and back, five times the size she was before her stay in the preserve. Krieg sees this, a faint memory of how much it had hurt when he'd went through it himself coming to the forefront and feels a deep sadness settle in amongst all the fear. Right now, the only person who could reach Bloodwing, the only person who she trusts enough to not just strike out at is far outside the preserve. He and Maya have no choice to to wear her down, hoping that if they knock her out and get her away from here she'll eventually recover.

They fight her a bit reluctantly at first until they realize that if they don't go all out, they might not survive this encounter at all. Jack seems to be forcing her to take on a variety of elements, making her even more deadly than she already was as giant alien bird of prey. His smug voice echos out of the speakers, making Krieg's teeth grind. But then he hears Maya, calling out warnings or suggestions across the battlefield and he keeps it together. He even manages to keep himself from slicing her open with his axe, instead smacking her with the broadside when she gets too close.

Three elements later, Bloodwing is worn down and Mordecai is loading up a tranq dart when Jack detonate her collar, killing her instantly. Mordecai's wails of loss could probably be heard even without the ECHO picking them up and Krieg lets out a matching bellow of frustration and loss.

"I'm so very sorry for you loss, Mordecai," Maya says even as she picks up the chip, the original reason they came to this accursed place. Turning her input off, she turns to Krieg, "Well that went… really crappy to be honest but we get leave now so that is something." She looks him up and down, "Maybe shouldn't head back to Sanctuary yet though. I've got to bring Roland this upgrade; I'm sure he's wondering what's taking so long." Krieg feels his shoulders start to fall but Maya quickly adds, "I'll meet up with you at Ellie's as soon as I'm done, alright? Anyway, let's get the hell out of here."

It's been twenty maybe thirty minutes since he and Maya split up at the fast travel station and he's starting to feeling better. The Dust and its wide open spaces have drained the caustic fear and nerves out of him, leaving him hollow and weary but calm. _Well, as calm as you ever get_, he thinks as he paces on top of Ellie's compactor _Now if only Maya would come back, this evening would be perfect... but of course, she's not coming back, is she? Now that the danger of us flipping out on her has passed and she doesn't have to keep talking us down, there is no way she'd actually want to be around us. We're not her problem anymore_.

"SHUT UP," Krieg shouts and slaps himself on the head as if to bat the voice away.

_I'm not going anywhere, you know. And hey, on the plus side, it means we'll be spending the night outside which I know you like. It's fine. I'm sure someone will be by tomorrow to come and collect their human meatgrinder. It's a miracle she put up with us that long really._

His self-pitying thoughts are interrupted by a swoosh and Ellie's drawl. "Oh hey cutie, you here to grab your boy?"

Krieg's breath hitches a little when he hears Maya's beautiful voice reply. "Ummmm," she says, dragging the sound out in an obvious stall, "yeah. Do you think you could tell me where he wandered off too?"

"I'm pretty sure he climbed his fine ass up on top of my compactor again. He sure seems to like it up there."

"You can see for miles from that vantage point. It's pretty freeing actually," Maya mumbles before saying louder, "Anyway, thanks."

"Anytime," Ellie says as Maya sneakers crunch their way towards the compactor and Krieg feels a flutter in his guts.

_Okay, let's stay calm. And maybe stop pacing so she can actually talk to us. Actually, let's just sit down, maybe someplace with a nice view? "_Quiet,"Krieg growls but sits down on the edge facing the setting sun anyway.

Maya finishes climbing the ladder and sits herself down next to Krieg, on the side with his good eye. "Hey, sorry that took so long," Maya says as she dusts her hands off on her pants. "Roland wanted a complete report and Mordecai's understandable not doing so hot... so yeah, things are kinda tense in Sanctuary." She turns and smiles at him, "So anyway, how are you doing? You seem," she looks his seated frame up and down, "better."

_Tell her that it's thanks to her this is even possible. That there is no way we'd still be alive if not for her kindness, _Krieg thinks while outwardly he just grits his teeth and shakes his head.

Maya watches him for a moment before adding, "I'm sorry. I know I ask you a lot of questions and I can tell it isn't easy for you to answer them. I just know you understand me. And I'm not going to treat you like your less than human. So don't worry if it takes you awhile to answer. I'll be here for whenever that is."

Krieg looks at her, eye wide with shock. _Maya_, he thinks, _how is it even possible that someone as kind as you exists_. He wishes, with everything that he is, that he could thank her. That he could tell her just how much she means to him. But he can't, not yet at least. And that's alright, for now.

So they just sit there in a comfortable near silence and watch as the sun dips below the horizon. And it is a stunning sunset, he has to admit, even if the woman next to him puts it to shame. He's not sure how it happens, not sure who bridges the gap first but as he and Maya watch day turn to dusk, their shoulders begin to touch. He starts a little at the contact but doesn't move away and maybe, he hopes beyond hope, she won't mind. Maya turns, just a little, to glance at the point of contact and then smiles and stays. So that's alright too.


End file.
